


Slumber Song

by lessStress



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Gen, M/M, One Shot, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23926876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lessStress/pseuds/lessStress
Summary: Junmyeon hops on the train and takes his chance.
Relationships: Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay
Comments: 13
Kudos: 29
Collections: Challenge #1 — Beginning





	Slumber Song

When Junmyeon closes his eyes, he can almost see it. 

Yet the swaying of the train today somehow fails to lull him to sleep. He presses his head on the window, almost annoyed at the views of the small town buildings lining the railway.

The more he thinks about it, the crazier this plan looks like. And Junmyeon has always been a chronic overthinker. He’s the manager-slash-organiser, the logistician, the logic core of every project and friendship groups he’s been involved with. He calculates the financial, temporal and opportunity costs of each decision, be it in dining out, attending social events, or taking up a job. 

So it’s strange that consequences are now the last thing on his mind.

All he knows is that every time he returns from work late at night, his condo apartment grows stranger and stranger, seeping and spreading through his bones the belief that he is simply an impostor, an interloper. 

It’s not unprecedented, Junmyeon thinks. At work he is a top performer, a skilled problem solver, but the tasks and praises that used to fill him up with pride now just leave him hollowed and weary.

He turned to what the books described as “healthy coping mechanisms” – exercise, healthy diet, sleep – believing they would give him some relief. But he ended up getting more than he bargained for.

In one of his drug-induced slumbers, he started seeing that person again, who has visited his nights for as long as he could remember. The person seemed to grow older along with Junmyeon in his dreams – playing hopscotch as a little kid, taking tests in a high school uniform, shaking hands and going into meetings behind closed doors.

Junmyeon had dismissed the visions, refusing to take them seriously when he could barely make out the person behind the blurry outlines he saw, but this time they came back and persisted night after night. 

It now had a pattern – the person would stand on a train platform with a rucksack on his shoulder and stare ahead as train came and went. The weather might change – sometimes rays of sunlight would illuminate the person’s profile, or rain would form puddle under the person’s shoes. But the person would stand still on the same spot at the small town station, as though waiting for something. Junmyeon wanted to reach out to the person, learn his features, hear his voice, but everything vaporised when he as much as extended a hand, leading him back to his dark, chilling bedroom.

The dreams simultaneously filled Junmyeon’s chest with a peculiar, twisting warmth and enveloped his skin with cold melancholy. Even if he could not see the person’s face, the emotions he was experiencing made him believe he was sharing what the person was feeling. The longing was new yet familiar, as though he had been acquainted with it all his life but yet to learn the details, the traces of its every colour.

For the first few dreams, Junmyeon simply shook his head in the morning and went about his routine, because what could he do? But as weeks and months went by, he could no longer ignore the unspoken calls or the gnawing hunch that he could, should do something to ease the person’s loneliness, to calm both of their restless hearts, to stop settling and take the leap.

So he lodged his request for a sabbatical and left on his first day off. The destination is decided based on whim and guesswork along with what he could recall from the apparition. The stations he’s passed through do not fit the picture, but his gut is convinced that this is the right direction, that the limits of public transport speed are the only thing standing between him and this person.

Junmyeon is almost falling back to sleep when the train slows down to enter another stop, and his eyes widen at the views. He looks around, and what he sees confirms it – he’s here. This is the place he’s been looking for.

He steps off the train with his bag and flicks his head left and right. Dread and fear slowly fall on him. What if this is all wrong? What if it’s all just in his head? What good would it be to throw caution to the wind when it’s the only thing keeping him together?

He drags his legs and slumps on a bench. The sun is setting, warm on his skin, and it is as though a soundless voice is calling him. When he looks up, he is left breathless.

Across his platform, stands a man with brown hair and sun-kissed profile. A rucksack is slung on one of his shoulders, and his astounded gaze mirrors Junmyeon’s.

The weight on Junmyeon’s shoulder melts, and he laughs from the relief. The person breaks into a smile at the sight, and Junmyeon has never seen someone so beautiful. The blurry shapes from his rest now reveal fond, crinkled eyes, and prominent dimples blooming on his cheeks, and Junmyeon wants to commit everything his senses can take in to memory.

Junmyeon is terrified, as though he is free falling, but at the same time he feels like he belongs. Somehow everything makes sense, even if logic doesn’t come into play. 

He has been hiding from this person all his life, and perhaps it’s the same the other way around. But they’ve found each other, and Junmyeon’s ready to make up for all the lost years, close the distance, and begin a new part of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
